Sentosa – Fort Siloso [Singapore 2018]

This was the day my breakfast included cheesecake. Nothing like quality nutrition to begin the day. It contained lemon and raspberry, so it covered more than half of the food groups, including fruits, so that makes it healthy. We spent most of the morning at my aunt’s house before going to meet another aunt for lunch and an afternoon back on Sentosa. Once again, we walked to Sentosa, but this time we were there to do some free things. First, after lunch we walked to Fort Siloso, a gun battery that formed part of Singapore’s defenses during WWII.

View from the Skywalk overlooking beaches and ships

In December 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they also began attacking US- and British-held territories in Asia. Allied forces in Malaya and Thailand were disorganized and didn’t expect the Japanese to be able to navigate the jungle, resulting in Allied withdrawal from the region by the end of January 1942. Using bicycles and light tanks, the Japanese then made their way south through Malaya towards Singapore. The causeway connecting Malaya and Singapore had been blown up, but in the second week of February the Japanese began using boats to land on Singapore. A week later, the British commander in charge surrendered. In total, 130,000 people in Malaya and Singapore were captured and Singapore was occupied by Japan until the end of the war, three and a half years later.

Exhibit (in the store) + cannon at Fort Siloso

Today, Fort Siloso can be reached by a Skywalk that affords views of the mainland, Sentosa’s beaches, and the many ships anchored off the island. Assorted artillery is located around the fort, presumably in some approximation of their original configuration. Some of the restored buildings include the fort’s general store, command post, casemates (fortified gun emplacement), and barracks. Some buildings have information about the background of Singapore’s defenses and life after Japanese occupation while others are recreations of what they might have been like during the war. The surrender chamber has a wax reenactment of the Battle of Singapore. It’s all still a bit of a work in progress, but an interesting look at a part of Singapore’s history that people might not think about in the midst of high rises and shopping malls.

From there, we paid a visit to the southernmost point of continental Asia and had the world’s fastest swim at the beach (80-degree water temperatures – never before seen in New England, where the air temperature in summer sometimes doesn’t reach 80). The swim had to be that fast because we were meeting an aunt for dinner on the other side of the island. It was a fancy hotel buffet, where my goal as usual was to see how many different desserts I could try. Four, for the record.

View of Sentosa from the southernmost point of continental Asia